Pa. voters want property tax and schools funding reform

It turns out we’re not the only ones clamoring for change when it comes to education funding in Pennsylvania.

In a year-long series of editorials we’ve dubbed “The Keystones: Education Funding and Property Taxes,” we’ve placed education funding in Pennsylvania under a microscope.

Starting with the basic building block of education funding in Pennsylvania, the property tax, through the money allocated to education in the state budget, we’ve put a focus on this crucial issue.

We’re not alone.

A recent poll from Franklin and Marshall College identified education as the top issue among Democrats as they head to the polls on Tuesday to select a candidate to oppose incumbent Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

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Twenty-nine percent of those polled identified education as the top issue, ahead of even the economy, which was stressed by 17 percent of those polled.

Interesting numbers, especially in light of the fact that citizens love to complain about issues, including property taxes, then stay away in droves when it comes time to select a candidate.

The turnout in Tuesday’s Primary Election will be hard-pressed to crack 20 percent. You read it right. It’s likely that less than one in five voters will decide who will appear on the November ballot.

Anyone who believes education funding is a real, pressing issue in Pennsylvania should be ashamed if they fail to get to the polls.

That’s especially true for Democrats, who will be selecting from a bevy of contenders as they select the candidate to tangle with Corbett, who has spent much of his first term under siege by education advocates who have harpooned his austere spending plans for cutting education to the bone.

The education issue has been at the forefront as Democrats engaged in a spirited series of debates; most have hitched their wagon to plans to slap an extraction tax on the state’s burgeoning Marcellus Shale industry, a move Corbett has steadfastly opposed.

Even the governor, his ears no doubt still burning from three years of complaints, earlier this year conceded the state direly needs a new funding formula, stressing the word “fair.”

Then there is the whole issue of whether or not to dump the property tax. Measures to do just that currently sit in various forms in both the state House and Senate.

On Tuesday Pennsylvanians will select candidates for every seat in the House, and a slew of state Senate spots.

With all this at stake, and with polls increasingly assuring us citizens are yearning for change in education funding, including possibly scrapping the property tax and developing a new funding formula, how can so many residents sit on the sidelines?

On Tuesday, the polls should be packed with those same residents who have been clamoring for change. Instead, most likely will sit the primary out, instead waiting for the November general election.

In the process, they once again will miss out on a crucial opportunity to make their voice heard, and register their concerns when it comes to education funding in Pennsylvania.